You guys, I totally got all emotional and upset when I watched the reunion show for the cast of “Everybody Loves Raymond.”  

As soon as Ray walked on stage, I got all teary-eyed, and every time a cast member was brought out, they were 30 years older and I was a mess.

And I couldn’t figure out why.

So, I thought about it.  When the show came on the air in 1996, Michelle and I were married for a couple of years. We watched together and loved it. 

We started a family a couple of years later, and when it went off the air, we still had little ones at home. The re-runs began almost immediately, and there were plenty of times it was comfort television.  

We watched when we were up with a sick kid or when we had to stay up late to get someone from a friend’s house or ballgame. We watched several episodes in a row when channels started the whole “binge watching” thing, and gradually, it became our new “Brady Bunch.”  

We knew pretty much every episode.

When our kids became young adults, they watched too, and we rediscovered beloved episodes with our grown kids. We laughed at “holy crap” and all the hijinks of the characters.  

It was just another superb show with exemplary writing and an ensemble that was unmatched.  

A classic.

As the holidays were approaching after we watched, I started thinking about how TV is a big part of our holidays. I’ve written about this topic before.   

How many of us watch the parades and football games on Thanksgiving and think about the days when we were excited to be out of school and still in our pajamas? 

How many of us see the “25 days of Christmas movies” on some of the streaming channels and tune in to the movies we’ve seen umpteen times? 

Why do we go to YouTube and type in “vintage holiday cartoons” and watch some of the old cartoons we remember?

Or am I the only person who does that?

I think we watch television during the holidays because it symbolizes so much to us. I think of the dog show on Thanksgiving, and how it seemed like everyone was in a good mood and actually in the same room together, wanting to be there and wanting to watch together. I think of how my family, no matter how old or young, would sit and watch “Elf” or “Home Alone” and laugh as if it was our first time seeing it.

And that feels good, doesn’t it? Being together.  Laughing together.

I think we watch TV at holiday time for the same reasons people rush the holidays and put their trees up before the last trick-or-treater leaves. We long for simpler times. We long for relationships. We long for a time when everyone seemed to get along and love each other. 

We long for how we always seemed to feel during the holidays.

Television at holiday times will transport us. I watch all the “Addie Mills” movies on YouTube, or any of the Charlie Brown cartoons, and instantly I am in footie pajamas and picturing our living room as this huge room – when in reality the room was actually little and I was much, much smaller.  

But I felt safe, warm, and carefree.  

The cast of “Raymond” is older now. Some of them are gone. Seeing them again makes me think of giving babies bottles or getting kids ready for bed in footie pajamas, or checking over homework – or simply taking a break from life’s worries and stresses.

Like I said, it feels good.  And I miss those people.

It’s good to see everyone again, even if it’s just for a little while.